


More Than a Candle

by midwinterspring



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, Caves, Darkness, F/M, Fluff, Happy Ending, Light Angst, Mammoth Cave, Mutual Pining, No Pregnancy, Non canon age difference, POV Alternating, Some history of Mammoth Cave, Time Weirdness, background finnrose - Freeform, left behind on a cave tour, mentions of foster system, or are they?, references to Irish mythology and folklore, the author really likes limestone, they were roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:54:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27258991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midwinterspring/pseuds/midwinterspring
Summary: Apartment mates Rey and Ben, along with Rose and Finn, go on a special tour of Mammoth Cave on Halloween, and something weird happens.A fic for Day 29 of Spooktacular: Liminal
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23
Collections: Reylo Readers & Writers - The Spooktacular Collection





	More Than a Candle

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to [literallynoonecares](https://archiveofourown.org/users/literallynoonecares/) for betaing this and [Somewhere_overthe_Reylo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Somewhere_overthe_Reylo) for further input!
> 
> Moodboard by me, inspired by Massimo Vignelli's famous [Unigrid system](https://www.nps.gov/subjects/hfc/a-brief-history-of-the-unigrid.htm) for the National Park Service.
> 
> Note: Although this fic has descriptions of absolute darkness in a cave and fears of being left behind in the cave, the characters are not in a confined space.

Rose had first mentioned Mammoth Cave over cocktails. She and Finn had invited Ben and Rey over to their apartment for dinner and drinks. Finn and Ben were both in a good mood about how their third year of law school was going, and especially that there had been a good outcome for a pro-bono client they were working with.

Rey had brought a bottle of what she hoped was good bourbon over as a host present. Rose had grinned at it. "Well done," she said. "You just upped our after-dinner cocktail game for sure."

Rey smiled. She had met Rose while in grad school for civil engineering at University of Kentucky, and then they had both stayed in Lexington for jobs. There was lots of building happening in Lexington and Louisville, apparently. They had been apartment mates for a year, and then Rose had moved in with her boyfriend Finn, who was in law school. Rey needed an apartment mate, one of Finn's law school friends needed an apartment mate, and that's how she had met Ben.

Ben now sat at the table, solemnly regarding his second Old Fashioned. Rey tried not to watch him, as always. She'd had a crush on him since Finn had introduced them, and somehow sharing living space hadn't destroyed it. But good apartment mates were hard to find, and Rey didn't want to make anything awkward between them by saying something.

"Did I ever mention my roommate Kaydel from undergrad? The one who went into geology?" asked Rose.

"Maybe?" said Rey. "Don't tell me she went to work for Big Coal or Big Oil or something."

"Oh no, nothing like that!" said Rose. "She's working at Mammoth Cave now as a ranger. She does tours sometimes, and she said she can get us tickets for a special one. They're doing lantern tours on Halloween."

"I'd definitely do that," said Finn.

"Same here," said Rey.

"That sounds cool," said Ben, smiling. He was looking at her when he smiled, but Rey told herself that was because he was happy to be going to the cave, and happened to be looking at her. That was all.

*

A week later, the four of them found themselves driving from Lexington to Mammoth Cave. They drove past the roadside attractions in Cave City.

"Oooh, Dinosaur World! We've got to come back here in the summer!" said Rey excitedly.

"And another cave? Crystal Onyx Cave?" asked Finn.

"Yeah, Kaydel said there are all kinds of cave systems throughout this region, and in southern Indiana too," said Rose.

"Monthly road trip?" said Rey.

"Sure, in between studying for the bar," said Finn. "Could be fun."

"I'm sure our brains will need breaks," said Ben. The thought sounded genuinely fun to him, which was new. Or was it that Rey seemed really into the idea, and he loved to see her smile?

He had hoped he'd be able to tolerate and politely share space with his apartment mate when he met her. He wasn't expecting that they would become good friends. He really wasn't expecting that he wanted her to be more than a friend. He wondered if she might feel the same too, the way she looked at him sometimes. But he didn't want her to feel uncomfortable around him, so he didn't say anything.

They drove into the national park and picked up the tickets Rose said would be waiting for them. When the tour time came, they joined a group of people walking through the orange leaves of late autumn, toward a place where the ground dropped downward and a huge dark entrance opened up. Water trickled over the rocks near the stairs down into the cave.

"This is the natural entrance into Mammoth Cave," said Kaydel, as she lit kerosene lanterns and distributed them to every few people on the tour. Out of their group, Rose got the lantern. "We know that humans have used this entrance for at least the past five thousand years. My hope this afternoon is to tell some of their stories. Since this is Halloween, we'll talk about some spooky lore too, but I want to present everything with respect for the people who lived and occasionally died in and around this cave system. Also, although this is a special lantern tour, there will be no special effects or 'haunts' on this tour. Does this sound good to everyone?" There was a chorus of "yes's". Kaydel walked down the group, counting. "Just making sure we bring the same number of people in and out of the cave! All right, follow me."

They walked down the stairs under the arched grey rock of the entrance, and into darkness punctuated with warm lantern light. "Now as I mentioned, this cave has been visited by humans for at least five thousand years. The first visitors were Indigenous people who mined minerals like gypsum from the cave walls. From archaeological evidence, we know that they traveled almost 12 miles into the cave, using torches cut from local cane for light."

For a moment, as Ben passed into the dark under the rock, with a procession of small warm lights preceding him, he felt like he was looking back in time, like he was one of those people Kaydel had talked about.

Ben hadn't been sure what the cave would be like, especially by lantern light, but he decided he liked it. The passage they walked down was fairly wide, and there were only a few places where he had to duck. The rock walls to either side of him reminded him of a canyon.

Kaydel was telling the story of a white settler allegedly finding the cave entrance they had come through while chasing a bear. Ben glanced at Rey. Her face was even more beautiful in the lantern light as she looked around the cave.

"I hope that it won't disappoint you that we won't see many stalactites or stalagmites on this tour," Kaydel said, as they continued to walk on a path that sloped downward. "Most of Mammoth Cave, while formed by slightly acidic water eroding limestone, is now a dry cave, protected by a sandstone cap layer that has kept the cave remarkably stable. In places where this layer has been eroded, there are beautiful formations like the Frozen Niagara, which we showcase on other tours. On this tour, you'll see some of our large cave 'rooms'. The cave's name is a reference to the size of these passages and others like them."

*

The group emerged into a very large room. Rey looked up and saw that the "ceiling" of the room appeared to be rounded. Next to the path, she saw wooden pipes and boxes that Kaydel has said were the remnants of saltpetre mining in the cave.

"Now I don't know any specific stories about Mammoth Cave and Halloween," Kaydel said. "But, that doesn't mean that there aren't caves elsewhere associated with the holiday! There are caves here in Kentucky because of our limestone, and there is limestone in many other places too - where there were warm shallow oceans in prehistoric times. When I was doing my PhD, I was lucky enough to spend some time studying caves in Ireland.”

"Part of the origins of Halloween is an Irish holiday called Samhain, one of the turning points of the year, when people would get ready for winter. All kinds of things happen on Samhain, and stories talked about people going in and out of the Otherworld easily.”

Kaydel continued, as the lanterns cast flickering shadows on the stone around them, "There's a cave called the Cave of Cats in a very ancient complex called Rathcroghan in County Roscommon. The monks who recorded the old stories called it Ireland's gate to Hell. In the stories, the cave was an entrance to the Otherworld, and on Samhain dangerous creatures would come out of it. The name probably comes from a story where dangerous cats were brought from the cave to test young warriors.”

"There's a somewhat more recent story of a woman following a calf into the Cave of Cats and emerging out from one of the caves of Kesh Corran, a number of caves in a limestone hill in County Sligo, 25 miles away. While the two caves aren't connected in the physical world, they certainly both feel mysterious when you visit them. At Kesh Corran, I could easily imagine various magical creatures hiding in the depths of the limestone. It's possible that caves were associated with the Otherworld because they were places where two of the three realms of land, sea, and sky met - the sky and the earth connecting.”

Rey listened to Kaydel's stories with interest. She had wanted to go to Ireland since she had heard of Newgrange and the way the Winter Solstice sun would illuminate the inside of the structure. She hoped to someday see some place that old and experience some of the things humans had built a long time ago. She liked feeling like she was part of a long tradition of building.

"It's possible that the darkness of caves like the Cave of Cats played a part in initiatory rituals. These days, there aren't too many places in the world where you can experience absolute darkness. So we like to give our visitors a taste on our tours," continued Kaydel. Rey had ended up near the front of the group, listening to her stories, and she was happy to see that Ben had too. "Get comfortable - you'll need to stay standing in the same place for a bit. When I count to three, we'll all extinguish our lanterns. And you probably want to make sure your smartphones and smartwatches don't light up, either. We'll be in the dark for a minute or so, then I'll light one lantern so you'll see something similar to what the first visitors to this cave saw. Then we'll relight all the lanterns."

Rey glanced at Ben, then back at Rose and Finn. Kaydel counted, people blew out their lanterns, and - it was dark. Absolutely and completely. She couldn't resist holding a hand in front of her face, which she certainly couldn't see.

There was some laughter, some shifting around, then silence. Silence that stretched and stretched. It had to be more than a minute, and there was no pinprick of the first lantern relighting. She heard footsteps moving away, then...nothing.

"Finn? Rose?" called Rey. "Kaydel?!"

"We're still here!" yelled Ben.

Nothing.

"How come we didn't see their lights?" asked Ben.

"I don't know," said Rey.

"We should have seen  _ something.  _ Those lanterns aren't bright, but in absolute darkness, we would have seen something. They were  _ right there _ . This is a big open space - we should have seen them. And no one is going to wander around in this cave in the dark.”

"This isn't funny," said Rey. "Hey!  _ Hey _ !" she yelled. Echoes, then silence.

"Maybe if they see our cell phone lights?" asked Ben.

"Yeah, maybe we don't have to sit in the dark." She pulled out her phone. She had turned it off for the tour, and she tried to turn it on. Nothing happened. "I had almost a full battery when we went in here! This is a new phone too."

"Oh no," said Ben, from somewhere next to her. "Mine won't turn on either. This doesn't make sense."

"They'll come back for us," said Rey, trying to sound convincing to herself. "Finn and Rose will notice that we're gone. And Kaydel counts everyone coming in and out of the cave. No one wants to lose someone in here. They'll find us."

Next to her, Ben huffed out a breath. Then silence again, thick and enveloping.

"Where are you?" she asked, extending her hand out to the side. "I don't want to lose you too." Her hand hit something solid.

"I'm here," said Ben. "That's my arm."

"Oh good," said Rey. "Don't go anywhere."

Ben snorted. "Uhhh, let me tell you how much I don't want to."

Rey breathed. "Okay. We're okay. This is a big space, we have plenty of oxygen, we ate and drank fairly recently-even if somehow Kaydel doesn't come back to find us, there will be another tour through here tomorrow morning. Could get awkward trying to go to the bathroom, but we'll be fine otherwise."

She looked down. "Sorry. I tend to think through worse case scenarios."

"Engineer thing?" Ben asked.

"Yeah, engineer thing," said Rey. It was part of it for sure. The other part was the way she'd grown up. Losing her parents at an early age and growing up in different foster homes meant she was aware of difficult realities others didn't want to talk about. 

Compared to that, planning to spend a night in a cave or considering all the ways a structure could fail was simple. Something she could quantify and understand. "I mean, this cave has been here for thousands of years, and it's stable enough that thousands of tourists come through here every year. This area doesn't generally get earthquakes. It should be fine for a night."

"Okay, Rey, now I  _ am _ freaking out a little."

"Sorry, sorry," she said, shifted around on her feet.

"I'll be fine - really,” said Ben. He sounded a bit uncertain.

"Look, I'm sorry," said Rey. "I feel like I dragged you on this absurd tour, and now this happened."

"No need to apologize," said Ben. "If I didn't want to be here, trust me, I wouldn't be here. I've really appreciated how you've introduced me to your friends, and you've all tried to include me."

"Of course," said Rey. "You're...you're easy to include."

She wanted to say so much more.

"Thanks," he said. "You might not have said the same, if you had known me in the past."

"I mean, same here," said Rey.

*

Their voices echoed less than Ben would have expected. In the dark, there was no indication how large the room they were in was. It could have stretched out forever, or been barely wider than his arm span. He felt a bit adrift, and reached out reflexively. His fingers brushed Rey's. He pulled them back. "Sorry," he said.

"No, that was okay. Was good," she said.

He felt her fingers against his again, and then she was holding his hand. Her hand felt warm, even in the chilly, damp cave.

"Okay?" she asked

"Yeah, very okay."

It was silent again, but the silence was more comfortable than it had been. Ben was still hoping to hear people coming back for them, but he and Rey were the only people making noise near them.

"No sign of Otherworldly cats," said Rey.

"Not sure that's comforting to mention," said Ben.

"Do you think the ancient Irish had cat memes?" asked Rey.

"Well, if the stories were recorded in manuscripts, I'm sure there were marginalia. So maybe the monks did?" said Ben. "Sorry, I'm kind of a geek about this sort of thing. I've done calligraphy since high school."

"That's so cool!" said Rey, sounding genuine. He had never known her not to be genuine. "I had no idea."

"I haven't exactly had a lot of free time since law school. But I should pick up a pen again soon."

"I would love to try that at some point. Could you show me a little bit?"

"Sure, you can use my supplies. I can show you the basics and help you find some good tutorials," said Ben.

"Great! And I can show you how to slay at that marshmallow spaghetti tower exercise you'll probably have to do for teambuilding at some point," said Rey.

Was it just his imagination, or was she holding his hand more tightly?

*

Ben laughed at her marshmallow spaghetti comment. His laugh was deep and warm, and Rey wanted to hear it more.

Rey thought of fears, of how many times in her life she had felt abandoned. Here, she and Ben were literally abandoned by their tour, or at least that's how it looked at the moment. She felt nervous about that.

She remembered Kaydel's stories of caves as initiatory places. And here she was on Halloween, a tremendously liminal night if the stories were to be believed. She was holding hands with someone she had been interested in for a long time, but had been too afraid to say anything to. She was pretty sure he was interested in her too. She would trust herself. It was worth taking a risk, and she would deal with the consequences.

"Can I...kiss you, Ben?" Rey asked.

"I genuinely never thought you would ask," said Ben. "Yes, of course."

"I've wanted to for a while. I just...didn't want to make things weird with the apartment," said Rey.

"I don't think this will make anything weird,” said Ben, “and I've wanted to kiss you for a while myself."

Rey found his shoulders in the dark, then his neck and his soft hair, and then she felt him bend down towards her. His lips were soft and tentative, and then she pulled him closer. She heard him sigh against her mouth. Her hands tangled in his hair and his arms were around her waist and she kissed him deeply.

*

Rey's lips felt amazingly good against Ben's. Her arms around his shoulders were so comfortable, and comforting. He barely registered it when he saw light through his closed eyelids, and heard voices. He let go of Rey reluctantly as he felt her arms loosen around him. They turned to face an unbearably bright lantern and the people behind it.

"Hey, don't fall behind the group!" said Finn. "I thought we had lost you for a minute there."

"I mean, I can see you were distracted," said Rose. "Can't say I blame you, but I would hate to get Kaydel in trouble by leaving you behind."

"You thought you had lost us...for a minute? Like, just a minute?" asked Ben.

In the lantern light, Rose frowned. "Yeah, I mean the lights were out for a minute or something, then Kaydel relit the lanterns, one by one. We started leaving the area, and then we noticed you weren't with us. No big deal, though. Come on!"

Ben glanced at Rey, who looked as puzzled as he felt.

"That felt like...a lot longer," said Rey. "Huh."

He shrugged, and they rejoined the group. He looked down and realized they were still holding hands.

An hour later, at the end of the tour, when they emerged into the beginning of a spectacular Halloween sunset, they were still holding hands. Ben had an odd sense of something watching them fondly as they left.

He saw Rey turn back to the entrance, and was pretty sure he heard her whisper, " _ Thank you." _

_ "Yeah, thank you,"  _ he whispered himself.

Only the wind brushing through the leaves, the faint sound of trickling water, and the deep silence of stone answered them.

**Author's Note:**

> My first "Rey and Ben in a cave" fic (and first use of the tag "the author really likes limestone" is in my [microfic for "Aglow"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26227066/chapters/63834226). The place described in the "Iris" microfic (in the same chapter) could be one of the places that Rey, Ben, Finn, and Rose visit on a future road trip.
> 
> For another fic in which place is important (and maybe supernatural), check out ["To Love Shadows and Marvels"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23674711/chapters/56834920).
> 
> The title is from Matthew Stover's novelization of Revenge of the Sith.
> 
> The moodboard includes pictures of Mammoth Cave's Historic Entrance and the Rotunda Room.
> 
> I played fast and loose with National Park Service policies here (and possibly with how easy kerosene lanterns are to relight when extinguished). There have been lantern tours of Mammoth Cave in the past, although they seem to use a different route. The tour in this story is based on the Historic Tour I've been on several times. (I've also done the Frozen Niagara Tour which is also mentioned, and which comes in by another entrance. Mammoth Cave is _huge_.)
> 
> I've also been lucky enough to visit Newgrange, Oweynagat (the Cave of Cats) and Kesh Corran. 
> 
> All of the history, archaeology, mythology, and folklore Kaydel talks about is actual history, archaeology, mythology, and folklore. Time passing differently is a common feature in stories about the Irish Otherworld.
> 
> [Mammoth Cave](https://www.nps.gov/maca/index.htm)  
> I sadly haven't visited [Crystal Onyx Cave](https://crystalonyxcaveky.com/) and [Dinosaur World](https://dinosaurworld.com/kentucky/). I have visited a number of other caves and roadside attractions in Kentucky and Southern Indiana.
> 
> [Rathcroghan (Cruachan Aí)](https://www.rathcroghan.ie/)  
> [Oweynagat (Uaimh na gCat, the Cave of the Cats)](https://cavesofireland.com/home/caves/oweynagat-cave-of-the-cats-co-roscommon/)  
> [Caves of Kesh](https://voicesfromthedawn.com/caves-of-kesh/)  
> [Newgrange (Brú na Bóinne)](https://voicesfromthedawn.com/newgrange/)
> 
> While not a cat meme, there is a poem written by an Irish monk about his cat [Pangur Bán](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangur_B%C3%A1n). Also check out this article from Trinity College Dublin about [cats in the Book of Kells](https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/book-of-kells/0/steps/50086).
> 
> I'm on Twitter as [@midwintersprin1](https://twitter.com/midwintersprin1). Please let me know in a DM, on Discord, or by leaving a comment if there's anything I should have tagged.


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